


do it for the dibs

by questionableatbest



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, it's literally just all fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-09 01:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8870950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/questionableatbest/pseuds/questionableatbest
Summary: dex and nursey want ransom and holsters dibs, ransom and holster are worried that dex and nursey will fight constantly if they live together, dex and nursey pretend that they've been dating for a year to prove them wrong





	1. Chapter 1

Dex and Chowder were in the middle of working on a programming assignment when Nursey sat down at their table with a disgruntled huff.

Dex easily recognized the look of irritation on his face, just barely hidden under his usual, chill façade, because he’d spent the first year of their friendship being on the receiving end of the look. At the moment, though, he couldn’t think of anything that he’d done to piss Nursey off, so he just raised his eyebrows in question.

Nursey sighed again, and then turned to Chowder.

“Chris, Christopher, Chow, Chowder, _buddy_ ,” he started, and Dex had a feeling that a rant was coming on, so he was surprised when Nursey just asked, “What the fuck did you do to get Jack’s dibs?” but then he wasn’t surprised at all.

Chowder, however, blinked and furrowed his brow. “Uh, I still don’t really know?” he said after a moment, and then shrugged and said, “Played well in the Frozen Four, I guess? And I have great spirit, he said,”  and Nursey sighed again.

He leaned back in his chair and muttered something along the lines of, “My spirit is fantastic,” and Chowder looked mildly offended, so Dex decided to step in.

“Still nothing from Holster?” he asked, and Nursey shook his head.

“I literally just hand washed all of his equipment, got his skates sharpened, fucking _polished_ his _helmet_ , which isn’t even a thing that people do, and _nothing_ ,” he said, and Dex wanted to point out that all of that couldn’t have taken longer than two hours and that, really, it couldn’t have been that much work, but he held himself back. After a moment, Nursey raised an eyebrow and asked, “Anything from Ransom?” and Dex shook his head.

“Nothing,” he said, and then frowned and added, “I think I almost had him when I mentioned that I could build him a ladder for the bunkbeds, but then Holster came in and started shaking his head and coughing a lot, and they left pretty quickly after that.”

Nursey blinked and said, “You’re kidding,” and Dex shook his head.

“Maybe we should just start looking for apartments?” he asked, and Nursey sighed.

“But I _don’t want to_ ,” he said, almost whining, and Dex rolled his eyes and told himself not to smile, and then Nursey went on with, “Besides, who else would they give their dibs to? Like, the attic is for two people, so d-partners make the most sense, and we’re d-partners, and we also spend the most time there? So? What the fuck are they doing?”

Dex shrugged. “We could ask them?” he tried, and Nursey groaned.

“No we can’t,” he said, a bit too loud for the library, “That’s like, against every rule there is, I think. Or. I don’t actually know. But it probably is.”

Dex blinked. A year ago, that logic would have pissed him off more than anything else in the world, but now he found it strangely endearing and he kind of hated that. Still, he just narrowed his eyes and said, “Right,” and then tried to come up with another solution because, really.

He wanted to live in the Haus next year.

It was close to campus but not actually on campus, and he already spent most of his time there anyways, and the fact that the building was a million years old and falling apart and was already inhabited by multiple hockey players meant that the rent was affordable, and living there would make everything about Dex’s life easier.

Lardo had already given her dibs to Tango, on the condition that he direct every question he ever had to anybody _except_ for her, and it meant that Ransom or Holster were Dex’s only hope.

Nursey was the only person on the team he could even imagine sharing a room with, so including him in his plans was a given.

Still, they’d been at it for months, and nothing was coming from it, and somewhere along those lines, Nursey and Dex had decided to live together no matter what, so apartment hunting seemed like as good an idea as any, but that didn’t stop Dex from turning to Chowder and narrowing his eyes slightly.

“You live in the Haus,” he said, slow and calculating, and Chowder nodded.

“Yeah?”

“So you hear things,” Dex continued, and Chowder started to look nervous but Nursey was looking interested, so Dex went on with, “So you know why we haven’t gotten the dibs?” and, really, Chowder didn’t stand a chance after that.

He looked down for half a second, and that told Dex all he needed to know and, even as Chowder looked back up and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Dex knew that they had him.

Nursey leaned forward in his chair and said, “Oh my _god_ , you’ve been holding out on us,” and Chowder looked like he wanted to disappear and, in any other situation, Dex would go easy on him but, as it was, he just watched as Nursey said, “I thought you were our friend, but you’ve been- you’ve been _fraternizing_ with the _enemy_ . You’ve been keeping _secrets_. You’ve been- you’ve been letting us run around like idiots and you’ve just been- betraying us,” Nursey finished with, and it was a bit dramatic, even for him, but Dex just shook his head at Chowder and played along.

“Are we even friends?” he asked, and Chowder’s expression turned from conflicted to irritated for half a second, before he sighed.

“It’s just-” he started, and then he cut himself off and looked at Dex and Nursey and said, “Promise you won’t get mad?” and Dex did feel kind of bad at that, and he was pretty sure that Nursey did as well.

They both said, “Promise,” at the same time, high fived without looking, and then turned to Chowder.

Nursey asked, “What’s up?” and Chowder sighed again.

“ _I_ know it’s ridiculous,” he said, looking at them meaningfully, before he went on with, “But Ransom and Holster are kind of worried about you two- fighting.”

Dex blinked. “Fighting?”

“Why would we fight?” Nursey asked, looking confused, and Chowder just pursed his lips.

“To be fair, you don’t exactly have the best track record…” he trailed off, and Dex knew that that was logically true, but it also didn’t seem like a good enough reason for them to not live together because, really.

“That was years ago,” he said, and then added, “We’re good now,” and Nursey nodded, but Chowder was starting to look exasperated.

“Last week you didn’t talk to each other for three whole days when Dex said that Star Trek is better than Star Wars,” he said, like that explained everything, and Dex furrowed his brow.

“Yeah,” he said slowly, “But then we agreed that Harry Potter is better than both of them, and we’re good now.”

“That’s-” Chowder started, and then cut himself off, took a breath, and tried again, turning to Nursey, “When you found out that Dex put extra butter on his microwave popcorn, you threw out all of our butter _and_ popcorn and then you yelled at each other for like, an hour.”

Nursey didn’t look fazed. “Yeah, but then we agreed that movie theatre popcorn is better anyways, and we went to see Moana.”

Chowder turned back to Dex. “Have you seen how much cleaner your room is than his?” he asked, and Dex shrugged.

“I shared a room with my brother for like, fifteen years. I can handle a mess,” he said, and then he added, “And if I can live with my brother I can live with anybody, so Nurse won’t be a problem,” and Nursey turned to him, smiling.

“Bro,” he said, with a hand over his heart, “Was that a compliment?”

Dex snorted. “Don’t get your hopes up,” he said, but there wasn’t any mirth in it and Nursey kept smiling and they shared something that felt like a moment, before Chowder sighed.

“I’m just telling you what Rans and Holtz have been saying,” he said, and then he added, “Bitty thinks you’d be great together,” and Dex’s heart rate spiked a tiny bit at that, but then Chowder added, “As roommates, I mean,” and Dex told himself to calm down but, beside him, Nursey looked suddenly intrigued.

“What do you think?” he asked Chowder, and Chowder blinked.

“About..?”

“About us being good roommates,” Nursey clarified, and Chowder shrugged.

“It’d probably work?” he said, and then he smiled and added, “And it’d be nice to have you both in the Haus and you definitely get along a lot better than you used to so like, it’d be really good, probably?”

Nursey nodded at that, and then asked, “And what about us being good, like, _together_?” and if Dex had been drinking something, he probably would have spat it out.

As it was, he just sputtered out a, “What?” but Nursey barely paid him any attention, focusing on Chowder instead.

For his part, Chowder’s eyes were wide and he was definitely trying not to smile, and- “You mean, like, _together-together_?” he asked, and when Nursey just raised his eyebrows and nodded, Chowder went on with, “Are you saying that you are together? Because like-”

“We’re not,” Dex said, cutting into whatever Chowder was about to say because, really. He didn’t think he could handle it. Instead, he glared at Nursey and said, “What the _fuck_ , Nurse?” and Nursey shrugged.

“It could work,” was all he said, and it was vague and cryptic and Chowder looked confused too, so Dex just repeated his previous sentiment.

“What the fuck, Nurse?”

Nursey rolled his eyes and sighed, like Dex was missing something obvious, before he said, “If Rans and Holtz think we’re _together_ -together, they’ll totally give us their dibs,” and Dex just blinked, because-

“What?”

“Like, if they think we’re _together_ -together, then they’ll know that we don’t really fight all that much anymore, so that won’t be a problem, and there won’t be any other problems, so we’ll get their dibs,” Nursey said, and Dex found himself actually thinking about it for half a second, before he realized how ridiculous it was.

“That’s literally not how anything works,” he said, and Nursey frowned.

“Dude, it’d totally work.”

“Couples fight all the time,” Dex pointed out, “And they break up all the time. If they think we’ve just started dating, they’ll be even more reluctant to give us the dibs.”

Nursey rolled his eyes and said, “Glad to see you still believe in love,” and Dex scowled, but then Nursey added, “But like, we could tell them that we’ve secretly been together for a while? And like, we could announce our relationship to the team or whatever and be like _‘yeah hey guys we’re in love and we always have been,’_ and they’d totally buy it, and we’d totally get the dibs.”

Dex swallowed down the lump that appeared in his throat when Nursey said the word love, and bit his lip. “It’s-”

“The only thing that’ll work?” Nursey tried, and Dex rolled his eyes.

“Ridiculous, I was going to say.”

“But like, just ridiculous enough to work?” Nursey prompted him and, well.

The whole thing sounded like torture to Dex, because there was nothing in the world that he wanted more than to actually be dating Nursey, though he rarely let himself think about that.

They were friends, and it was better than being at each other’s throats all the time, and he’d long since accepted that it was all he’d ever have with Nursey, and he was fine with it.

Still, he wasn’t sure that he could handle pretending to date Nursey. Holding hands and cuddling and pet names and doing whatever else couples did all seemed like a lot, and he was kind of uncertain about the whole thing, but he also had to admit that it wasn’t a terrible plan, so he ignored Nursey and turned to Chowder.

“You wouldn’t tell anybody it’s fake?” he asked, and Chowder’s eyes were wide and he looked kind of terrified by the whole thing, and he hesitated.

“I…” he trailed off, and then he looked from Nursey to Dex a few times, and then he bit his lip and seemed to come to a decision, because then he said, “If you’re sure it’s a good idea,” and Nursey smiled, and apparently that was that.

Dex felt a tiny bit uneasy and he didn’t think he could quite manage a smile, so he put his game face on and started thinking over the logistics of the whole thing. He asked the first question that came to mind, which ended up being, “So how did we get together?” and then, when Nursey raised an eyebrow, he added, “We need to have our story straight if we’re doing this,” and Nursey’s smile turned into a smirk.

He said, “Babe, if we’re going to do this, _nothing_ about it’s gonna be straight,” and Dex groaned when he caught onto the joke.

“I take it back,” he said, shaking his head and trying not to laugh, “We’re not dating. It’s not happening. No. That was the worst joke I’ve ever heard and I can’t be known as somebody who dates people who make jokes that are actually that bad.”

Chowder was smiling, and Nursey’s grin was huge as he said, “Awh, love you too, babe,” and Dex groaned again.

“This is the worst idea ever,” he said, and Nursey kicked him under the table and, when Dex looked up, he saw that Nursey’s expression was surprisingly earnest.

“If you don’t want to do this, it’s cool- like, it was just an idea,” he said, and something caught in Dex’s throat, and Nursey just kept going, shrugging, before he said, “But it could be kind of fun?”

Dex swallowed and nodded and said, “Yeah,” and then added, “It’ll be fun,” and then, just for good measure, he smirked and kicked Nursey under the table and called him, “ _ Sweetheart _ ,” and Nursey’s eyes practically lit up.

“Exactly,  _ honey, _ ” he said, and Dex grinned back.

“ _ Darling _ ,” he said, and Nursey laughed, and then the pet names just kept coming because, really, no matter how close their friendship was, Nursey and Dex had never managed to stop being ridiculously competitive, so the list just kept going on, with-

“ _ Love _ .”

“ _ Angel _ .”

“ _ Pumpkin _ .”

“ _ Sugar _ .”

Before Nursey narrowed his eyes at that one and went with, “ _ Two and a half cups of flour _ ,” at which point Dex kept his eyes narrow and tried to hide his grin as he went with-

_ “Two eggs _ ,” and then Nursey’s grin was almost big enough to break his face and Dex stopped trying to hide his, and Nursey looked ready to go on, when-

“But won’t you two have to break up at some point?” Chowder asked and Dex was still looking at Nursey, and he saw something dark flashed across his face for a moment, before he shrugged.

“I guess?” Nursey said, and then he added, “We can figure that out when it needs to happen,” and normally that was the kind of planning that would irritate Dex but, just this once, he decided to let it go because, even if it was fake, he didn’t want to think about breaking up with Nursey.

Instead, he just nodded and said, “Yeah,” and then he asked, “When should we tell them we’re together?” and Nursey seemed to think about it for a moment, before he shrugged.

“Bitty’s making brunch tomorrow, so we could like, announce it then? Or just start making out on the table and see if anybody notices?” Nursey suggested, and Dex practically choked on air at that, but Nursey just kept going with, “But, like, there’s also a 99% chance that Ransom and Holster would assume it’s platonic making out and just like, try to jump in, so we should probably be more explicit than that,” and Dex covered his mini coughing fit with strained laughter.

It got him a weird look from Nursey and a concerned one from Chowder, but he ignored both and said, “Yeah,” and then, quickly, “I mean we should announce it at brunch- not- the other stuff,” and then, because that sounded weird by itself, “Bitty’ll kill us if we make out in the kitchen,” and there. That was a normal thing to say. Totally fine.

Nursey’s eyes were narrow for half a second before he went back to being chill, at which point he said, “Sweet,” and then, “I’ve got to get to class, but we can figure the rest out later?” and Dex nodded.

“Sounds good,” he said, and then Nursey was grabbing his bag and saying his goodbyes to Dex and Chowder, and then he was gone and Dex finally let out a long sigh, that got a raised eyebrow from Chowder.

“I’m supposed to pretend this is a good idea, right?” Chowder asked, and Dex tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips.

“It’s not the worst idea ever,” he tried, after a moment, and Chowder shook his head.

Still, he just said, “Maybe,” and then, “Is it alright if I tell Caitlyn?” and Dex opened and closed his mouth, before he shrugged.

“Yeah- or- well- it’s fine with me, but maybe check with Nurse?” he said, even though he really couldn’t see Nursey having a problem with it, and it didn’t really seem fair to ask Chowder to not tell Caitlyn but, well. That’s what people in relationships do, Dex thought. They communicate and talk and make decisions together and they compromise, even if the relationship is fake, which.

Yeah. Okay. Maybe Dex had no idea what he’d gotten himself into, and maybe he was panicking slightly, but that was all beside the point.

The point was, was that him and Nursey were pretending to date for an undetermined amount of time, and it was fine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dex and nursey talk out more of the details

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** i changed the ending of the last chapter, so you should probably check that out before you read this one

Nursey checked his phone after class, only to find about a million messages waiting for him from Dex.

The first read, ‘ _ What, how long do you think this’ll last for? _ ’ and the next one read,  _ ‘Is it cool if Chow tells Farms? I said yes but that he should check with you,’ _ and then there was,  _ ‘We still don’t know how we got together???’ _ and,  _ ‘Also, like, you make out with people at kegsters sometimes? Which is cool but like, how do we explain that?’ _ and Nursey stopped reading after that, because he knew what was happening.

Dex was panicking, and Nursey recognized that because he kind of felt the same way.

On one hand, pretending to date to get the dibs was quite possibly the best idea Nursey had ever come up with but, on the other hand, it was almost definitely a disaster waiting to happen.

Either somebody would call them out, or they’d get into an actual fight and ruin the whole thing, or Dex would realize how deep Nursey’s feelings for him actually were and get freaked out, and Nursey stopped that train of thought as soon as it started and told himself that this was going to work. He told himself that it was going to be okay, and he kept telling himself that until he realized that he should probably also be telling Dex that.

When that happened, he stopped reading Dex’s texts, and just pressed the call button.

The phone rang three times before Dex answered, with his standard, “What?” and Nursey hadn’t actually planned that far ahead and he didn’t really know what he wanted to say, so he just jumped in with-

“I’m thinking we started dating when we got back from winter break last year? Or maybe right after Winter Screw? Like Holster set you up with that douche bag from the water polo team and I know you went out with him a few times after, but like, you and him fell out over Christmas so like, we can say that after that you realized how you really felt about me and I did the same, so like, I don’t know? That can be when we got together?”

Nursey was getting strange looks from people on the sidewalk around him and Dex was silent on the other end, before he cleared his throat.

“Um, yeah? That would work?” he said, though he sounded uncertain, and then he went on with, “I mean like, we kind of broke up over you, so. It does work,” and Nursey’s brain almost exploded trying to figure out what that meant.

“You- what?” is what he finally settled on asking, and it got a nervous laugh from Dex, before he sighed.

“Yeah. I mean like, you glared at him a lot and whenever he brought it up I kind of? Took your side? I mean like, you and I were just starting to get along and I didn’t want to fuck that up and also? I mean, he wasn’t exactly very interesting so like, the one time you and I were skyping over Christmas I kind of stood him up, so yeah. You were definitely a factor?”

Nursey blinked. “I. Fuck,” he said, and yeah. There was no eloquence there whatsoever, but this situation was sort of past eloquence, and Nursey couldn’t even bring himself to apologize because, really. Water Polo Guy had been a douche, and Nursey had done Dex a favor, and if the voice in his head saying that was mostly just made up of jealousy, than that was beside the point.

The point was, was that this story fit their plan perfectly, so they ended up agreeing to use it.

They also agreed that their relationship was an open one until a few months ago (ie. since the last time Nursey had hooked up with somebody), and that they’d probably go along with this until a few months into next year, and that it was fine if Farms knew, and that it was probably better if their parents didn’t know anything about it at all.

By the time they were done talking, Nursey was back in his dorm, they both had good ideas of what they were going to say tomorrow, and Nursey actually felt a lot better about the whole thing.

Honestly, talking to Dex had a way of making him feel better more often than not, but he wasn’t focusing on that.

Instead, he asked, “Do you want to grab coffee before brunch tomorrow?” and he could practically see Dex’s brows furrow, before he even said anything.

“There’s gonna be coffee at the Haus,” he said, and Nursey rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but we could get like, lattes, or something.”

Nursey could still hear a frown in Dex’s voice when he said, “We don’t need lattes,” and this time Nursey sighed.

“I know that, babe,” he said, emphasizing the pet name before he went on with, “But I’m going to get one anyways, and if you want I’ll get you, my boyfriend, one as well, before I stop by your place and walk you to the Haus, like boyfriends do.”

“I- okay?” Dex said after a moment, and Nursey had kind of been expecting a bit more of a fight, or at least some healthy bickering, but Dex just added, “I like hazelnut?” and Nursey snorted.

“I know, Dex, I’ve been ordering you drinks for years,” he said, and then, a bit softer, “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” and the next day, that’s exactly what happened.

Nursey woke up an hour earlier than he needed to, he showered and shaved, he spent way too long picking out his clothes, and then he stopped by Annie’s and got him and Dex their drinks. He had loads of time to spare, so he took his time walking the rest of the way to Dex’s dorm, and told himself that he wasn’t stalling.

He also pretended that he hadn’t spent the entire night thinking about how he’d spoiled Dex’s last attempt at a relationship, because that was beside the point.

The point was, was that they were pretending to date, and Nursey had long since resolved himself to that, so he didn’t hesitate at all when he got to Dex’s dorm. He just knocked on the door and then called out, “Honey, I’m home,” and then grinned when Dex opened the door, scowling.

“You don’t live here,” he said, and then he added, “And you’re early,” and then he took out the coffee cup Nursey was offering and stepped back into his room, leaving Nursey temporarily speechless, because Dex wasn’t wearing a shirt, and that was always a lot.

Still, Nursey followed him in after a moment and said, “Love you too, babe, and it’s so good to see you and, by the way, you’re welcome for the coffee, really, it was no problem,” and, when Dex snorted, he told himself that this was going to be easy after all, because couples bickered all the time, and bickering with Dex was quite possibly Nursey’s number one favourite pastime.

“The coffee was your idea, and you do realize that if you keep going with the ‘babe’ thing, we’re going to get fined constantly, right?” Dex asked, while he shuffled through his dresser, presumably looking for a shirt, and Nursey shrugged and flopped onto Dex’s bed.

“I put one of my parents’ credit cards in the sin bin a while ago, so that should cover it,” Nursey said, well aware of the fact that it was the kind of thing that would piss Dex off and, sure enough-

“I can’t believe your parents have given you more than one credit card, Nurse, seriously,” he huffed, and Nursey shrugged, because this was also a conversation that he knew how to have.

“I tend to lose them, so,” he said, and Dex pulled a t-shirt on and then turned to look at Nursey with an expression that was definitely incredulous but also, Nursey thought, maybe a bit affectionate.

“You’re impossible,” Dex said, shaking his head and biting the corner of his lip, before he sighed and said, “Now come on, let’s get this over with,” and nodded towards the door.

For his part, Nursey raised an eyebrow. “We’re about to go profess our love to the world, and that’s all you’ve got to say to me?” he asked, and Dex rolled his eyes.

“We’re telling a roomful of hockey players that we’ve been dating so that we can trick them into giving us access to cheap student housing next year. Call me old fashioned, but that’s not exactly a profession of love,” Dex said, and it was dry and flat and definitely a joke, but it also left Nursey feeling annoyed, so he just blinked.

“Yeah, true,” he said, and then he got up and pushed past Dex, out of the room. Dex followed and gave him a weird look, but Nursey just leaned against the wall and waited for him to lock the door, doing his very best to keep his expression blank, even if he was pretty sure that Dex could see through it now.

Still, Dex didn’t say anything. He just locked his door, furrowed his brow, and headed for the elevators. Nursey followed him and, when they got there and started waiting in silence, he realized that he needed to stop making it weird and actually say something, so-

“Farms thinks we’re idiots,” he said, because it was relatively neutral territory, and he had 10 unread text messages on his phone telling him that.

Dex didn’t exactly stop frowning, but he did say, “Yeah, so does Chowder,” and that was something, even if it was mildly offensive.

“Screw them though, right?” Nursey said, and when Dex raised an eyebrow he went on with, “This is going to be great. Like, honestly, I’m a great boyfriend so I’ll be a great fake boyfriend, and I’m sure you will be too, and you’re already like, my best friend and we know pretty much everything about each other, and honestly, this is going to be great, and-”

“Do you think we should make out?” Dex asked, as soon as the elevator doors closed behind them, and Nursey blinked.

“I- What?” Nursey asked after a moment, by which point Dex had taken a few steps back, putting as much space between them as possible, and Nursey’s heart was beating a million miles a minute because, really.

He didn’t know what to do with that.

Logically, he’d realized that, yeah, they’d probably have to like, hold hands and cuddle and maybe occasionally kiss, but actually being confronted with that was something else entirely and, really, he probably should have thought about it sooner.

“I’m just-” Dex had started, and then he cut himself off with, “I mean, like- if we- we’re- Like, we’re telling them we’ve been dating for a year and like, they’ll probably want us to at least? Kiss or something? And they’ll know if it’s the first time, so like-?”

The elevator stopped on the bottom floor, but nobody was there to get on and neither of them moved to get off, and when the doors closed and they were alone again, Nursey took a deep breath and asked, “Do you want to kiss me?”

Dex was bright red and staring at the ceiling, braced against the wall across from Nursey, and he just shrugged. “I- wouldn’t mind? Like? We should practice and like, from an aesthetic point of view you’re definitely like, hot, so?”

On any other occasion, that probably would have delighted Nursey.

Dex thought he was hot, and he said that out loud, and it was great but, at the moment, it really wasn’t.

At the moment, he just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t making his best friend ridiculously uncomfortable, so he stopped every other thought running through his head, sighed, and then went on with, “Will. If it makes you uncomfortable literally like, at all, just say so. We can tell them we’re not into PDA or whatever. It’s honestly fine,” and if he sounded too serious, then it was only because this was important.

He was practically in love with Dex, and if he used this as an opportunity to make out with Dex and Dex didn’t like it, he’d be taking advantage, and he wasn’t doing to do that.

He just wasn’t, so when Dex looked up and said, “I- maybe no kissing, then?” Nursey actually breathed out a sigh of relief because, really. Boundaries were good and they probably should have established this one last night and, when Nursey realized that, he nodded and went on with-

“Alright. Of course. Is there anything else?” and Dex shrugged.

“Not really, I guess? I mean like, holding hands is cool and cuddling or whatever is fine too? I just feel like kissing is- a lot?” Dex said, and he sounded uncertain and nervous and every word was sort of like a knife in Nursey’s heart, but he nodded along and he didn’t let it show, even when Dex went on with, “Or- well- like, forehead and cheek kisses are fine? Just no like- I don’t know- making out or whatever?”

“Yeah, man, that’s all cool,” Nursey said when Dex stopped talking and shrugged again, and Dex looked relieved too. “And like, if you want to stop this whole thing, like, whenever, it’s honestly fine. Like. Just say the word and we’ll break up, okay?”

“I- yeah. Okay,” Dex said after a moment, a bit softer than before and, if Nursey wasn’t imagining it, a bit dejected too, but that was beside the point.

The point was, was that they were standing in a still elevator, negotiating what their fake relationship was allowed to involve and, when Nursey realized just how ridiculous the whole thing was, he let out a breath that was almost a laugh.

Dex looked up, and his brows were furrowed but his lips were fighting a smile, so Nursey just smiled back, and then pushed the ‘open’ button on the elevator and held out a hand and, this time he was the one to say, “Come on, then, let’s get this over with,” as he lead them both to the Haus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back in school and drowning in work but i swear to god i haven't abandoned any of my check please fics, including this one- updates are just gonna be few and far between for a while, but if you liked this please let me know! :)

**Author's Note:**

> if you like it, let me know what you think?


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